In Hot Water is the series debut for Kate Kingsbury's cozy tea-room mystery. Released 12th Oct. 2021 by Crooked Lane Books, it's 304 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately; it makes it so easy to find information with the search function.
The author is experienced, with several ongoing cozy series, In Hot Water is a promising start to a new small town storefront cozy, this time set in a tea shop. Protagonist Vivian is a widow in small town touristy Misty Bay, when her friend's ex-husband falls to his death wearing a pink negligee. Local police seem determined to put Vivian's friend Jenna in the frame for the murder. The secondary characters are sometimes a bit two dimensional and I felt that some were simply written in to provide plot points and move the scene along.
The
plot resolution was a little more linear than I'm used to, but all in
all the denouement was okay and well written. The language is fairly clean (PG rated) and there's no on-page blood or gore. I would recommend it to fans of amateur sleuth
small town cozies. There were a few plot twists which challenged my suspension of disbelief, but all in all, it's an engaging and fun book. The second book in the series is due out
Three and a half stars.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
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